Loud, youthful crowd spurs GWU women to comeback win

Thursday

Jan 16, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 16, 2014 at 3:58 PM

Alan Ford

BOILING SPRINGS — When the Gardner-Webb women’s basketball team trailed by 14 points in the second half against Big South Conference foe Campbell on Thursday, there was a little more incentive than usual for the Lady Runnin’ Bulldogs to rally.

The reason was the 500 or more young voices screaming their hearts out each time GWU made a basket or a steal. The Gardner-Webb women sent the elementary students from the surrounding area away with a smile after fighting back for a 56-54 win at Paul Porter Arena.

The “ Education Day ” crowd at the 11 a.m. contest witnessed Gardner-Webb lifting its league mark to 5-3 (10-7 overall), as the Runnin’ Bulldogs beat Campbell for the first time since the Camels joined the league two years ago.

“That was one of the best comebacks we’ve had since I’ve been here at Gardner-Webb,” ’ Dogs head coach Rick Reeves said. “The first half (with the atmosphere) our girls were excited and we made a few mistakes we don’t usually make. At halftime we talked about how we had settled for too many perimeter shots.

“But in the conference tournament there’s going to be a lot of people and it’s loud, so this was a great experience for us. I have to commend our marketing people for setting this up.”

Gardner-Webb shot only 33.3 percent in the first half and trailed 31-23 at the break. Down 38-24 early in the second half, it was still 42-30 with 12:30 to go. But bit by bit, GWU continued pound the ball inside. It took a toll on Campbell and the lead gradually shrank.

When Candace Brown made a foul shot with 3:13 to go, GWU was within 53-52. After misses by both sides, the Bulldogs tied it 54-all with 43.6 seconds left on two Catrina Green free throws.

Campbell turned the ball over with 19.4 seconds left, then GWU’s Jasmine Dale was fouled on a drive to the basket with only 4.2 ticks remaining. She made both for the ’ Dogs ’ only lead of the second half.

“When Jasmine’s at the line, that’s usually money in the bank,” Reeves said. “When they had it (when tied) we felt 22 (Kiera Gaines) was who they would look to get the ball to. We needed to defend her well. Our kids executed real well right there on defense.”

Green was in double digits again for GWU, scoring 13 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. Dale led the way with 14 points and five assists. Jessica Heilig contributed 12 points.

Campbell (9-8, 4-4 league) got 14 points from RaeChaun Edwards, with Roslyn Presley adding 13 and Gaines 12. But the Camels committed 13 of their 15 turnovers during the final 20 minutes.

“To win the league, you have to win at home and you have to split on the road,” said Reeves. “I don’t care which league you’re in, the SEC or ACC, that’s what you have to do. When we went to Virginia, I was disappointed because we didn’t split (two games) on the road. And today it looked like we weren’t going to defend our homecourt.”